Having recently re-joined the big-co world, allow me to share my email management strategy that has been working splendidly for me over the past month and a hal

Having recently re-joined the big-co world, allow me to share my email management strategy that has been working splendidly for me over the past month and a half. Note that while these instructions are MS Exchange (cringe) centric, the general idea applies universally. 1) Create a folder called "Not Inbox". This folder should not be a sub-folder of the Inbox folder. It should be a sibling. This prevents the mail from being delivered to the inbox on your phone. 2) Log into Outlook Web Access (must be "Premium", not "Lite", so you'll need to boot up your Windows VM and use Internet Explorer) 3) Create a rule that if the message is not addressed to you (ie. Your name on the TO or CC), move that message to the "Not Inbox" folder. 4) Configure the "Not Inbox" folder to purge any message older than 48 hours. Scan senders and subject lines (rarely bodies) in this folder once-ish a day; probably less. If you miss something, it can't possibly be important because it wasn't sent to you. Besides, it was sent to a mailing list, so it will probably come back around when someone replies to the thread. 5) If you notice a pattern in the "Not Inbox", things like useful information about build breaks, feel free to create a rule to send them to another folder, but definitely don't send them to your inbox, even if they are rare. These are things that you want to say "Oh, hey, the build is broken, I wonder if anything broke it" but you still don't want to see a little (1) bubble next to the Mail icon on your phone! 6) Create a folder called "Black hole", also an inbox sibling. Set it's purge rules to the minimum (1 hour?). When you any sort of mail from a non-person, have it sent to this folder. You never ever check this folder, unless you request a password reset or something and expect to find a particular message. 7) Disable all calendar reminders. 8) Every morning, scan the current day for any meetings actually worth your time. "Accept" those. "Decline" any that don't meet the (hopefully very high bar). Do not look past today. Alternatively, do this at the end of the day, looking at tomorrow. If someone schedules a meeting in the morning and expects you to be at it in the afternoon, that's their problem. 9) Direct all non-employees to use your personal email account, which you manage with a different strategy. I use my old startup address for now. 10) Go do actual work. Embrace and nurture your forthcoming reputation as "The guy who never reads his email, yet somehow still shows his face in the most important meetings, and meanwhile outperforms the rest of us, while still going home on time."